The Frog Prince

Shirley sat on her front steps in the sun, reading the book of stories that Mrs. Simpson had let her check out of the school library. It was a marvelous book, filled with dozens of exciting stories and colorful pictures. Reading was Shirley's favorite subject at school, and it was her favorite pastime at home. She liked to sit outside and read each day after school.

Charles wandered over from next door and stood in the yard watching her. He was two years younger than Shirley. She pretended not to see him.

"Hi," Charles said.

"Hello," answered Shirley, barely looking up.

"Whatcha doing?" asked Charles.

"Reading," said Shirley.

"Oh," said Charles.

Shirley kept her eyes on the page. Charles began turning cartwheels, in the grass. Shirley could see him out of the corner of her eye.

"I can read," said Charles. Shirley knew that he couldn't. He knew some words, but he couldn't read whole sentences yet. He was only in kindergarten.

"I can read anything," Charles said.

Shirley sighed, and lowered her book.

"Would you like for me to read to you?" she asked.

Charles, smiled and hopped up on the step beside her. "Yes, please," he said. He snuggled up to where he could see the pictures.

Shirley began a new story about a misunderstood dragon who frightened everyone in the village, but turned out to be their best friend in the end. Charles clapped his hands and laughed aloud at the happy ending. Then she read a story about a poor hermit who lived in the woods and had to outsmart a witch who was trying to get him to move so she could use the woods for her own purposes. The hermit finally tricked the witch into bewitching herself into a mushroom, and his home was saved. Charles didn't understand this story. He began asking endless questions about why the hermit did this, and why the witch did that. Shirley finally said, "Do you want me to read or not?"

"I want you to read," said Charles.

"Then be quiet, and listen," said Shirley.

She began a story about an enchanted prince who had been turned into a frog by a wicked witch.

"Is that the same witch who turned herself into a mushroom?" interrupted Charles.

"No...maybe...I don't know. What difference does it make?" Shirley was getting peeved.

"Well, I just thought..."

"Charles, shut up and listen."

"OK."

Shirley continued reading, and of course a princess came along and kissed the frog, which broke the spell, and turned him back into a prince, and they got married and lived happily ever after.

Charles sat thoughtfully for a while. "Gosh," he finally said.

"What's the matter now?" Shirley asked.

"Well, how did the princess know for sure that the prince was really a prince who had been changed into a frog. Even after she kissed him and changed him back to a prince, how could she be sure that she wasn't really marrying an enchanted frog who ..."

"Charles, you're wierd."

Just then, Charles saw two boys coming down the street on bicycles.

"Look, here comes Dickie and Johnny Harold," he said. Dickie was Charles' older brother, and Johnny Harold was in the same class at school as Dickie and Shirley.

The two boys rode in the street, even though they both had been told to stay on the sidewalks. Dickie rode in front, with one hand on the handle bar, and the other clutching an object. The boys saw Shirley and Charles and swerved toward them. Dickie jumped the curb, nearly falling off of his bike. He rode up to Shirley's front step and stopped. He got off his bike with some difficulty, since he was holding a large, somewhat muddy, shoebox in one hand.

"Guess what we caught?" he said, without so much as a howdy-do.

"A fish," Shirley said.

"Naw."

"A horney toad," Charles guessed.

"Wrong again," Dickie said.

"What, then?" Charles asked.

Dickie stepped up close and carefully lifted the lid of the box so that Shirley and Charles could see inside. A large fat frog peered back at them.

"Wow," breathed Charles. "He's big."

"Where did you catch him?" Shirley asked.

"Down at the polliwog pond," Johnny Harold said. Dickie immediately jabbed his elbow into Johnny Harold's ribs.

"Uh...he means down where the culvert goes under the street," Dickie said.

"I'm going to tell Mom you've been down to the polliwog pond," Charles said. They had all been told not to go to the polliwog pond alone.

"We didn't go to the polliwog pond," Dickie said, but Shirley didn't believe him. Charles wasn't sure whether to believe him or not.

Just then, the frog gave a mighty croak and leaped through the opening where the kids were looking into the box. There was a mad scramble as they all tried to catch him. Each time somebody reached to pick him up, he would leap again. Finally, Dickie pounced on him just as he landed from a long leap to escape Shirley.

"What are you going to do with the frog?" Shirley asked.

"I'm going to keep him for a pet," Dickie said.

"I don't think that's a very good idea," Shirley said.

"Why not?"

"Because frogs need lots of water to live, and it will be unfair and cruel to keep him in a bowl or box or tank."

"Aw, you're crazy."

"Hey!" Charles exclaimed. "Maybe this is one of those enchanted frogs like we were just reading about."

"Huh?" said Dickie and Johnny Harold.

"Yeah. We were just reading about a frog that was really a prince who had been bewitched, and when a beautiful princess kissed him--the frog that is--he changed back to a handsome prince."

"Haw, haw," said Dickie and Johnny Harold.

"Well, he could be," Charles said defensively.

Dickie and Johnny Harold were laughing and making kissing sounds at the box. Charles looked angry. The two boys went around the corner of the house laughing.

"Don't pay any attention to them," Shirley said. "They both think they're so smart."

"Yeah," agreed Charles.

To Be Continued.